Is race real?

Is race real? At rst blush, this may seem like an odd question. After all, race seems to be all around us. We have no diculty ascertaining its presence in our daily interactions with others – if you ask me, I can tell you the race of the woman who drove the bus I caught to work this morning, or the race of the man who sold me a newspaper on my way home. And of course, race looms large in how we consider the world to be – it seems signicant that the USA elected its rst black president in 2008; it seems right that Australia’s “Stolen Generation” should seek compensation for injustices inicted upon them on account of their race; it seems contentious that the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in London thinks young black men should be the focus of anti-crime initiatives in Britain’s capital; it seems to be an advance that in the 2011 UK census, the racial category of “Romany” has been added for the rst time. In light of what looks like the ubiquity and mundanity of race talk and thought in our daily lives, then, the oddness of the question “Is race real?” becomes apparent. Are we really supposed to question the reality of something that is so obviously a part of our everyday lives, and the subject of everyday talk everywhere? If we are, it looks as though it will simply be one of those esoteric philosophical questions that raise unlikely doubts about what is blindingly obvious to anyone who doesn’t want to play the philosopher’s game. But, as it happens, questions about the reality of race are not quite like that. ey are the foundation of serious enquiry with signicant import and ramications for our everyday thought and talk.